Boy falls from Marple Viaduct

A BOY has fallen from the parapet on the off-side of the Marple Aqueduct on the Peak Forest Canal and is critically injured.

The 16 years old boy was on the small parapet of the aqueduct when he fell, but it is not known if he stepped on it from a boat or somehow scrambled along from the offside of the waterway, Mick Fitzgibbons tells us.

Rescued by boat

The spokesman for the fire service in attendance stated that the rescue operation took more than three hours with the boy rescued from the bank of the Goyt in a fire service boat, it being the quickest way to reach him in the undergrowth.

He was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital, with it stated he had back, pelvis and abdominal injuries, but is now in a stable condition.

It was in July that Canal & River Trust announced that it was to spend £1.5m to provide railings for the aqueduct.